5 Tips to Prep Your Home for Winter

These 5 tips will help prepare your home for the winter

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Before winter hits, there are some things you should do to prepare your home and family for the colder weather.

These 5 tips will guide you through some simple steps any home owner can take. From keeping the pipes from freezing, to removing unneeded clutter, I hope some of these will help you have a more enjoyable winter.

1. Have your furnace serviced.

Hiring a professional to service your furnace just before the winter months will ensure you and your family aren’t stuck inside a cold home with a broken heater. If you have a fireplace, this would be a great time to have your chimney cleaned as well. Not only does soot build up create a fire hazard, but animals like to build nests in chimneys as the weather starts to turn – ask me how I know that one! Amazon Home Services is a great place to find qualified pros for any home project.

2. Clean the outside of your windows.

Clean windows in the winter can be a mood lifter.

Winter to some is known as the depression months, and for some people it goes as far as an actual disorder known as SAD. Sunlight can greatly effect our mood for the better.  An easy solution for this, is to open the window blinds. If you’re windows are dirty though, you won’t want to. You most definitely will not want to clean your windows in the snow either. So get out there while the sun is still shining and clean the windows before the snow falls. Now every time you open your curtains this winter you’ll find satisfaction in a clean window, and get a mood lift from the sun. I know it’s cold, but go ahead and open that window for 5 minutes too. The fresh air will change your whole house!

3. Winterize pipes.

As a victim of a burst pipe in our first home, I beg you on my hands and knees, winterize those pipes! Make sure the hose is turned off inside the house, not just at the hose. According to this post I found on Winterizing homes from the Comfree blog, you should also drain the hose, and if you’re expecting an extreme cold winter, you can install some Styrofoam insulation at the spigots.

4. Pack up and store summer clothes.

You know what I hate? Opening my kids drawers and finding them full of shorts in the dead of winter. If you child is old enough to dress themselves, you most likely will find them trying to wear shorts no matter the weather, or they may just throw them on the floor, mixing them in with the dirty laundry. You can save yourself a lot of extra work, by packing these all in a box, and storing them out of the way until the warm months return.

5. Know where emergency supplies are. 

Finally, and I think this is something a lot of people are prone to forget, is have and know where your emergency supplies are. You never know when a winter storm will leave you without power.  A few things you should have on hand

  • flashlights
  • candles
  • matches
  • simple tools. ie, hand wrenches, screwdrivers
  • warm blankets

I currently keep a bag of these on hand in my car (you never know when you may end up stranded on the road). Although I can easily grab it and bring it inside, it would be best to have an emergency kit inside your house as well. 

   

2 thoughts on “5 Tips to Prep Your Home for Winter

  1. Thanks for reminding us to have our heating system serviced to avoid being stuck in a cold house during the winter season. However, I think that our heater is too old and spending money on repair would be a waste. It might be more ideal to hire professionals for new installation services for better performance.

  2. With winter coming on, keeping your furnace and heating system clean is very important. It makes the system more efficient, meaning you get heat faster and with less energy use, but the biggest benefit is that consistent cleaning reduces the odds of a breakdown. It keeps your system running when you need it.

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